A “courier” has been jailed for two and a half years after he was caught on camera delivering almost £2.3 million to a Bradford jewellery business at the centre of a huge money-laundering inquiry.

In the space of just 14 days, father-of-three Raja Iqbal, from Manchester, made repeated trips to the premises of Fowler Oldfield and was captured handing over holdalls, supermarket bags for life and even a shoebox stuffed with cash.

On one day alone, he made four visits to the premises in the space of seven hours and delivered almost £900,000 in cash.

Today, Iqbal, 44, of Collingwood Road, became the latest courier to be sentenced at Bradford Crown Court following a police raid on the jewellery and precious metal business back in September 2016.

Prosecutor Jonathan Savage said the police seized a ledger detailing cash deliveries to the business as well the CCTV system.

He said those people dropping off cash were given a “token” in the form of a £5 note or a dollar bill as proof of delivery.

Mr Savage outlined details of 14 separate visits made by Iqbal to the business premises between August 18 and August 31, 2016.

On some occasions Iqbal would deliver cash to the premises, but then go away while it was being counted only to return later with another quantity of cash.

The court heard that at the time of the offending Iqbal was still on prison licence from a 40-month sentence imposed in 2014 for conspiracy to defraud.

Mr Savage said the money-laundering offences admitted by Iqbal totalled just under £2.3 million.

Iqbal was arrested and interviewed in December 2018 and he told investigators that he was being paid £300 plus expenses to make the deliveries and he thought the money was from a legitimate business.

But Judge Colin Burn noted that the cash was not being delivered in any sort of official cash bags and on one occasion Iqbal had been given about £95,000 in a “car to car” handover.

Barrister Victoria Smith-Swain, for Iqbal, submitted that the judge could take an exceptional course in suspending any prison sentence.

She highlighted the significant delay in her client’s case coming before the court and the fact that Iqbal was “a changed man”.

Miss Smith-Swain said Iqbal had expressed remorse and regret for his offending and he had stayed out of trouble for over five years. But Judge Burn said Iqbal had been delivering very large amounts of criminal proceeds and unlike other couriers who had done it once or twice he had done it on 14 occasions.

The judge explained that Iqbal could have faced a five-year jail sentence after a trial, but he had to reduce the prison term to take account of the delay, Iqbal’s guilty pleas and the present Covid restrictions in prisons.